I ordered a pizza, they delivered an apizza, and they called it ah-beetz.
Pizza lovers in Connecticut know exactly what the word apizza means, and they also know that one of the best (if not the best) versions in the entire state is found at Roseland Apizza in Derby. On a recent Saturday night, we joined some friends and made the pilgrimage to the neighborhood that has had the privilege of protecting this pizza icon. We sampled three distinct combinations, each with three distinct personalities and three different tastes, all sharing one undeniable theme: perfection.
Before diving into our visit, it’s worth appreciating Roseland's roots. The story begins in 1935, when Giovanni “John” Scatolini, an Italian immigrant, opened a bakery and grocery store in neighboring Ansonia. He originally baked bread in a coal-fired oven in his backyard; a tradition he carried with him when he moved the business to Derby in 1938. World War II brought a family tragedy to the Scatolini family, when John’s son, Reno, was killed in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.
Connecticut, like the rest of the country was buzzing with excitement this week as election day loomed. But last month, there was a very different kind of election with sauce, crust, and plenty of cheese. After more than 13,000 votes from pizza and apizza fans were tallied,Connecticut launched its first-ever Pizza Trail, a culinary map celebrating 100 of the Nutmeg State’s most beloved pizzerias.
I, along with CT Bites Editor in Chief, Stephanie Syrop Webster, were there for the unveiling of the trail and boarded the couldn’t-miss-it-you-tried giant DATTCO bus wrapped in apizza pies.
One could argue, that before Greenwich Avenue’s current restaurant boom, one of the hottest spots on the block from 2015 until it closed in 2020 was Back 40 Kitchen. Now, just a touch over the Byram neighborhood’s border in Port Chester, frequenters of Back 40 will see a familiar face in Ian Vest at his newly opened Talia. Vest, originally a St. Louis native, who got his start in the industry at 13 years old and never left it, has seen his fair share of stints working at delis, burrito places, and “everywhere you can imagine.” But hard work pays off, as it landed him an executive chef position at The Crossing, a French-Italian fine dining restaurant in Clayton, Missouri, then, to The Culinary Institute of America.
You’re driving on Washington Avenue in North Haven, your car is thirsty, and you pull into Forbes Premium Fuel. Wait a second. What’s that sign say at the gas station? Pat’s Apizza? That’s your sign to swing open the gas station’s convenience store’s door. Look to the left and there’s a full-on pizzeria in there. Be honest…you thought this was gas station pizza, didn’t you? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but there’s a (desperate) time and a place for Stewart’s Shops, Love’s, Speedway, and Wawa. Let’s scrap that whole deal. Pat’s is a pizzeria that just so happens to be inside of a gas station and they’ve been getting a lot of love on social media since they opened on September 4 of this year.
The Connecticut Pizza Trail recently unveiled its list of the top 100 pizzerias for us pizza-loving Nutmeggers. While I could easily name a few they overlooked, it’s no surprise that many of the revered New Haven legends made the cut, with the rest fanning out in a 180-degree sweep west, north, and east across the state. Some of the additional names were instantly familiar, others have now earned a spot on my ever-growing “must-try” list. As I worked through the county-by-county alphabetical lineup, my attention naturally drifted to my home turf, New Haven County. One recognizable name after another appeared, and then, near the end, there it was: Zois Pizza. Tucked just off Route 8’s Exit 18 in Seymour, this unassuming gem might fly under the radar for outsiders, but for locals, Zois has long been among the Valley’s best.
Bar is located at 254 Crown Street in New Haven, CT, in an industrial building that proudly boasts its historical heritage with exposed brick, garage-style doors that open in warm weather, and vintage prints. As you walk through the different rooms and look at the food-beer offerings, you wonder whether Bar is a pizzeria that serves great pizza with a side of beer, or a microbrewery that drafts in-house microbrews with a side of New Haven pizza. For us, we were there for the pizza, and our single question was how it would compare to the other legendary New Haven pizzas.
Over the past months, I’ve been on a quest to find the best pizza in the Valley, exploring Waterbury and its neighboring towns. Now, it feels like the right time to turn my attention to what many consider the epicenter of Connecticut pizza: New Haven, where you're met with no shortage of options to explore. When a couple of buddies and I were scheduling a pizza lunch, we decided to sidestep the potential chaos of Wooster Street and headed over a few blocks to Modern Apizza on State Street. Once you manage to find parking, be prepared to wait, and count yourself lucky if you have that lucky timing of an immediate opening. We arrived just after noon and, to our good fortune, a booth was open in the back room. We took it as a sign of good things to come. As soon as our server arrived, we ordered a couple of bottles of Foxon Park, Kola and Root Beer, then got down to topping talk. We kept it semi-classic: one pie fully loaded with pepperoni and the other topped with sausage and onion.
In 2024, when I interviewed Sal Bagliavio, the co-owner of Bailey’s Backyard, about his second spot, Taco Dia in Newtown, he very cryptically mentioned that he and chef/co-owner Forrest Pasternack were actively looking to open something else, somewhere else to follow up their taqueria.
Cosetta Pizzeria and Paninoteca on the Post Road in Fairfield is that something else—and what it is, simply put, is a more gourmet version of the neighborhood slice shop, plus sandwiches (including breakfast), house-made pastry, and coffee.
Introducing the New Haven Pizza Club Pizza Bagel Tour, a delicious fundraiser with 100% of all proceeds going direct to Feeding Families- including all costs that are also donated.
The Pizza Bagel Tour is a pop-up pizza bagel collab with Olmo Bagels X New Haven Pizza Club X a rotating New Haven pizzeria. Each pop up will be at a different Pizzeria and their 2nd stop is the iconic Modern Apizza on OCTOBER 6th, 6-9PM at Modern Apizza at 874 State Street in New Haven.
What began as a dream to unite people through a universal symbol—pizza—has evolved into a movement rooted in storytelling, collaboration, design, and immersive experiences. The Pizza Bagel Tour brings together legacy New Haven businesses and iconic culinary voices to create one-of-a-kind moments that transcend art and food. But at its core, the project has always pointed in one direction: toward the mission.
On March 15, 2024, a new pizza place opened in Derby with little fanfare. No social media push, no PR blitz. They just opened.
Being a self-proclaimed pizza obsessive, I quietly noted it and planned to visit soon.
A few months later, I did. It was a simple takeout order: cheese and pepperoni. And it was fantastic.
When I picked it up, I noticed how genuine and engaged the lady was who was serving me. She made an immediate impression. I have since been back several times and recently got to sit down with her (Sheryl) and her husband Marcus, the unassuming pizza maker.
Bartone’s Apizza is their pride and joy, and it is highly worth a visit for any pizza lover with red sauce running through their veins. It’s also the kind of place that is, sadly, a dying breed. The couple simply wants to serve and support the community they grew up in—and will literally do almost anything to make you feel at home (keep reading).
Governor Ned Lamont today announced a statewide social media giveaway to celebrate the October 1 launch of the Connecticut Pizza Trail. Anyone who reshares CT Visit’s official “Connecticut By The Pie” social post will be entered into a raffle to win two tickets to the Connecticut Pizza Trail event—a two-day bus tour on DATTCO’s one-of-a-kind “Pizza Capital of the U.S.” coach, featuring the state’s most iconic and up-and-coming pizzerias.
I can’t put my finger on exactly when it was or where I first saw it, but early in 2025, I spotted a pizza at Magic 5 Pie Co. that left me both curious and confused. Known for their charred, crispy/chewy, light artisan pizza, I noticed a different shape. This one wasn’t round like their everyday pies. It was square. Later in the year while chatting with one of Magic 5’s owners, Shawn Longyear, who co-owns the pizzeria, along with The Spread, and El Segundo with Christopher Rasile, Andrey Cortes, and Chris Hickey, I couldn’t help but ask about it.
I guess after making pizza for over fifty years, it comes as no surprise that one of the best pizzas in the greater New Haven area, as well as one of the best pizzas in CT, is made by Pasqual (Pat) DeRiso at Ernie’s Pizza. Pat is the second-generation owner of Ernie’s, which was started by his father and mother, Ernesto (Ernie) and Jennie De Riso, in 1971. Pat purchased the business in 1989 and now continues the family tradition, personally crafting every single pizza that comes out of the oven.
Four years ago, when I first covered Bobby Manere’s Dogtown in Milford—where Cali-inspired fast casual and a little bits of his dad’s lower Fairfield County famous Swanky Franks meet—he talked about wanting to open a Dogtown sequel. That time is now, and Bethel, you’re the lucky recipient. Manere broke the Bethel news on my friend, Jeff Spencer’s Sweet’N Up Podcast, when he was a guest alongside Kyle Marcoux, aka, The Vulgar Chef.
My CT Pizza journey continued in the East Rock section of New Haven with a visit to One6Three – The Pizza Joint, as it approaches its 10th anniversary. One6Three is located on the corner of Foster and Willow, and I have been hearing a lot of positive feedback from my pizza buddies, so I wandered over to check it out. As I drove through the East Rock section it was a déjà vu experience for me, the area was reminiscent of my neighborhood growing up, lots of two-family homes lined the street and you could feel the sense of community. It was that environment that first molded my love of Italian food and great NJ pizza
My latest excursion into the great CT pizza offerings took me to Middlebury, CT, north of I-84 to Dominic’s & Vinnie’s, who proudly proclaim, “we serve only one item: pizza, in all its various forms.”
Domenic’s & Vinnie’s is a family-owned destination that has been satisfying the greater Waterbury area at three different locations for over 75 years,. The original location in Waterbury was opened in 1949 and the family later expanded, first to Middlebury and subsequently to Southington. The restaurant’s recipe dates back to the owners’ roots in Castelpaganica, Italy in a province known particularly for its superb cuisine, with all sauces and doughs made fresh daily, as well as their house-made meatballs and sausage.
Eleven years ago, Michael Androw was at a crossroads in his hospitality career. Getting his first taste of the industry making pizza at his grandparents’ Italian bakery in New London, he then worked in nearly every food and beverage setting as an adult: casual dining, fine dining and bars and nightclubs.
The most recent addition to the menu is borrowed from one of Androw’s friends and mentors, West Coast pizzaiolo Tony Gemignani. The World Pizza Cup champion, who owns several pizzerias in California and Nevada, created a purple potato pizza with a white base, with thinly-shaved vibrant violet spuds, bacon, pesto, feta and scallions. Androw loved it and asked Gemignani for his blessing to add it to the Avon menu.
I love discovering places that get very little fanfare, are the heart and soul of the owner(s), and absolutely kill it. Papa’s Pizza in Milford is one of those places and is the epitome of a hole in the wall on the side of the road that deserves recognition for some killer pizza.
The original Papa’s Pizza is located closer to Walnut Beach versus downtown Milford (where Papa’s Pizza II is located), and I was getting a little nervous as the soccer ball at the end of the purple line on Waze was quickly approaching, and there was no sign of Papa’s. On my right there was a bakery, a breakfast joint and a parking lot. As I slowed to a crawl and stared into the lot (my apologies again to the people in the car behind me), the far section of the white building had two red words above a small window, “Papa’s Pizza.”
You’re visiting your favorite Neapolitan pizzeria. Almost always, the person “manning” the wood-fired oven is, well, a man. Shattering that mold is Alexandra Castro, whose love story with pizza began when she was a kid in her home country of Colombia. Making pizza in her youth, must have sparked something, because Castro went to culinary school, worked her way through the industry, and ultimately landed her locally at The Inn at Pound Ridge by Jean-Georges, and after that, as head chef at Pizzeria Magpie in Montreal, known for its Neapolitan pizza.
New Haven’s Graduate by Hilton Hotel is about a mile’s walk from Wooster Street, and in fact has a “pizza pay phone” in its lobby, with a direct line to Sally’s Apizza. But downstairs at its bar, a Connecticut dad has turned his own passion for pizza into a weekend pop-up with a loyal following.
Joe Pangia’s Three Sons Pizza got its start at Old Heidelberg last May, offering fresh-baked 16-inch pies and slices out of its bar kitchen on weekends. Pangia, who lives in Middletown, is an insurance professional and avid home cook who began to perfect his pizza recipes during the pandemic, working on the dough, sauce and toppings and asking for feedback from friends and family.
